What English Proficiency Means in Arizona

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice reached an agreement with the Arizona Department of Education that will require the state to change how it classifies students who are not proficient English speakers.

The new classification system will likely enable more students to become eligible for language services, after a distinct drop in the number of children who were eligible during the 2009-2010 school year.

The agreement comes at a time of intense controversy surrounding how Arizona’s English language learners are served by its public education system. It also offers some early lessons for policymakers around the country who may be looking to update or refine their education policies to ensure that non-native speakers receive the services they need.

The settlement addresses how Arizona screens students to determine if they need to be tested for ELL services. Parents of new students are asked to complete a Home Language Survey, which asks questions about their children’s language background to determine if they need additional support and English language instruction. In July 2009, the state reduced the number of questions from three to one: “What is the primary language of the student”?

Though the difference between asking one question and three may not seem big, Arizona reported a 26 percent drop in the number of ELL students in the K-12 system during the 2009-10 school year, from 132,213 to 98,831 students. The investigation concluded that the change in screening procedures that year was at least partially accountable for the decline.  This was troubling because students who may have benefitted from having been classified as English Language Learners may have been overlooked. Countless studies have shown that students who struggle with English are at risk of struggling in school.

Under the agreement, Arizona will return to the longer questionnaire, which included questions such as, “What is the language that the student first acquired?” in addition to asking about his/her primary language. If answers indicate that the student may speak a primary language other than English, that student is screened using a standardized statewide assessment to determine whether he or she is eligible for an ELL program.

This settlement is related to a larger dispute over the way Arizona handles students who speak a primary language other than English. The conflict is well-illustrated by Horne v. Flores, a court case brought by parents of ELL students against State Superintendent Tom Horne regarding whether or not Arizona’s ELL programs violate the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (EEOA) by not serving students well enough. According to The Yuma Sun, the prosecution withdrew the complaint about Home Language Surveys after the Department of Justice  and the Department of Education began investigating the change in policy last summer.

The rest of the Horne v. Flores case, which is awaiting a ruling in the U.S. District Court in Tuscon, spans pretty much every part of a student’s experience including the screening processes used to determine whether the student should be classified as an English language learner; the 4-hour instructional “blocks” that ELL students are placed in (which separates them from native English speakers); and the evaluations students take to test out of the ELL program into regular schooling.

As other pieces of the lawsuit continue to be tackled in the courts, we’ll be watching closely to see what other changes may be ordered or agreed upon, if any. One thing for sure is that this will not be the last controversy over how to serve ELL students. With the number of students who speak a primary language other than English rising across the country—and 19 percent of the population over 5 currently speaking a language other than English at home, according to the American Community Survey– many other states will also have to formulate comprehensive policies of their own, and soon.